Sue Y. Nabi, the trans CEO who has changed the world of cosmetics

CHARACTERS

Win and convince. Sue Y. Nabi was the first trans CEO of a large cosmetics group. She made Jane Fonda the face of a beauty line at 68, and now, at the helm of Coty, she has set out to reshape this business to make it fully inclusive.

At 44 years old, Sue Y. Nabi (Algeria, 53 years old) had already achieved everything in the beauty industry. Or almost everything. She entered the L'Oréal group long before she reached her thirties and in the almost two decades that she spent there she was in charge, with excellent results, of the management of firms such as L'Oréal Paris or Lancôme. But one day Nabi disappeared from the map. The person who changed the concept of beauty by hiring actresses in middle age and who had promoted several of the products that are still among the best sellers needed a new challenge. Her solvency reinventing existing brands was more than proven and she Nabi wanted to create a firm from scratch. Despite the fact that the French conglomerate had given her a meteoric career, she did not understand this concern. With her resignation, she made it clear to them that her ambition was not a whim. In the five years it took her to develop Orveda, a line of vegan cosmetics, there was no trace of Nabi. “It's true, but she was still alive and working hard. Creating a brand from scratch and launching it just before the pandemic was super important because it gave me what was probably missing from my years at L'Oréal, and that's why [Coty CEO] Peter Harf approached me to run the company. What made me unique is that no one had had these two types of experiences, as an entrepreneur and as a leading brand manager,” he argues.

This interview took place in mid-September at Coty's laboratories in Versoix, Geneva. That is where fragrances are born, a mainstay of the business that was seriously affected by the new consumption habits brought about by the pandemic. During the tour of the different departments, they show the contactless testers they have been working on in anticipation of a possible new wave. In Monaco there is the skin care laboratory, the division that grew the most during confinement and that has served its competitors to pull the car through so many uncertain months. Precisely, several analysts blamed Coty's poor results on the fact that they did not have any relevant treatment brand in their portfolio, although this statement is not entirely accurate. “People don't remember, but 20 years ago Lancaster was much more innovative than that famous brand that I'm not going to mention because I don't want to make enemies. She invented retinol treatments using liposomes, those capsules created to penetrate the skin without irritating it. She also invented modern sun protection with technologies to protect DNA from external radiation. When I arrived, people said that we did not know how to do treatment and a year later we have Lancaster as a reference for regeneration, reinventing itself in China before returning to Europe; Kylie Cosmetics, founded by Kylie Jenner and aimed at generation Z, or Kim [Kardashian]'s brand that is going to be aimed at millennials. We also hope to develop more treatment products in our consumer brands because, at the end of the day, this company has decided that treatment is a serious strategic priority,” says Nabi. She assures that, among all the brands of inflluencers, Kylie Cosmetics is the one that has performed above expectations, apart from showing that the DTC (direct to consumer) business model can be very profitable, and not only by subtracting from the equation to distributors. “Kylie Jenner has increased her Instagram followers by 60 million in the past year [she currently has 280 million followers and is the third most popular on the planet], two million recently in one week. During the live sessions, she connects with people who comment: 'I like it', 'I hate it', 'Why don't you do this or that?' That gives us ideas for upcoming releases. This is the power of dealing directly with the consumer,” she explains.

The acquisition of several of Procter & Gamble's brands in 2016, including Max Factor, Rimmel, Gucci and Hugo Boss, cost Coty investors €11.3 billion. At the time of purchase, prospects were rosy. However, until the incorporation of Nabi, several of them were not giving the projected benefits. “CoverGirl is a brand that kept losing market. The problem is that the people at P&G who bought it seven years ago decided to invest in lipsticks, eye shadows, small categories that were trending because they wanted it to look like other young niche brands, but it was strong because it sold products for Americans of all ages looking for a good foundation for everyday use, a good mascara. Since we've gone back to its DNA by investing in a clean makeup line [formulations with minimal ingredients that avoid certain chemicals] and Lash Blast Clean mascara, CoverGirl has increased its market share for the first time in five years. They told me I wasn't going to make it, but we made it happen”, she says with satisfaction. As if not to be: the results they announced for fiscal year 2021 have been very good. The company has grown above market expectations, as well as its profitability and its capitalization. “In the time I've been here, the shares have risen from 1.72 to 6.02 euros. They no longer see us as a problematic company, but as a very well organized company, which fixes what it has to fix and with the necessary brands to grow in the next decade”.

On whether the licensing business, key in Coty's framework, is a minefield - Valentino lasted just six years in the hands of Puig, who in turn took Gaultier from BPI, now part of the Shiseido group -, confident sign. “The best way to mitigate this risk is to create a strong, healthy and profitable business that we are happy with and that the fashion houses that license us are also happy with. Problems occur when there is a misunderstanding or there is not the same level of ambition on both sides. For me, there is the same risk as in a business that is yours: if it doesn't work, someone won't come to take it from you, but you will have to be the one to stop it. It's about finding the right recipe, the right products and the right advertising." If there is someone with the necessary intuition to put a face to the desires of the moment, that is her.

The Y that precedes her last name corresponds to Youcef, her deadname (the name she was given at birth). Nabi is a woman who has never hidden her past. The conventional does not enter into her vocabulary, not even in the moments in which she is required to touch the fiber of half the planet. “I asked Jane Fonda to be the face of a cosmetic line when she was 68 years old. Together with Julia [Roberts], in her 40 they were great successes. People had many doubts and sometimes believed that I was alone in this matter, but today I can say that I am proud, although it is not a matter of pride, but of doing the right thing”. His was the decision to hire Niky Taylor as the image of CoverGirl 20 years after the American model was the brand's ambassador. Also hers is the initiative with which she intends to make beauty a truly inclusive industry. “Part of the innovations we work on are making sure that those who are not able to use the products are actually going to have options. This is inclusivity: making sure someone who doesn't know how to wear a mask for a thousand reasons has the chance to use our products. And we can give him or her whatever pronoun they want to use.”

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